Bitcoin, an alternative financial system?

WHEN:

March 5, 2020

1 pm – 8 pm

WHERE:

Vienna

Austria

Our Mission

Bitcoin - A Controversial Subject

Never before in the history of mankind could we observe the monetarization of an asset in real time. Some are certain that this new digital commodity will change money forever, while others are convinced that Bitcoin is just a bubble which will burst eventually.

Nobody knows how this socio-economic experiment will pan out but there are many who have strong and differing opinions about it. VoB provides a platform to discuss the potential benefits and pitfalls of Bitcoin.

The goal is to provide comprehensive understanding and enable all attendees to make well-informed decisions about Bitcoin.

Everything important at a glance

Fast facts

DATE

March 5, 2020

SPEAKERS

15 Proven International Experts

ATTENDEES

100 Innovator and Thought Leader

LOCATION

Palais EsterházyWallnerstraße 41010 Vienna, Austria

FORMAT

Open discussions with trusted experts and lectures on recent research about the risks and opportunities of Bitcoin.

AUDIENCE

Business leaders and profound thinkers from all industries looking for innovation in value storage and transfer.

Rahim Taghizadegan

Aleksandar Svetski

Aurel Schubert

Dr. Arthur Stadler

Mark Justin Valek

Anita Posch

Bitcoin & Co. Podcast, Author

Ben Kaufman

Open Source Developer

Keyvan Davani

Total Bitcoin Podcast Host

Sven Schnieders

Writer, Limitless Curiosity

Manuel Andersch

Senior Economist and FX Analyst at BayernLB

Manuel works as Economist and FX Analyst in the research team of BayernLB, where he has also been covering Bitcoin for many years. He completed his degree in economics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, before receiving his master’s degree from the University of Edinburgh. He was ranked as best FX analyst worldwide by Bloomberg in 2015, as best Sterling forecaster in 2019 (Bloomberg) and as best forecaster for Scandinavian currencies in 2018 & 2019 (Refinitiv).

Bitcoin is a system based solely on free choice. Thus, if Bitcoin were to become the money of the 21st century, it is because humankind preferred Bitcoin’s characteristics over those of alternative forms of money.

Anita Posch

Bitcoin & Co. Podcast, Author

Anita Posch is a Bitcoin insider and educator. She is the host of the “Bitcoin & Co.” podcast and author of a Bitcoin guidebook in german. Anita is member of the board at “Bitcoin Austria” an educational non-profit organization established in 2011. She translated both volumes of “The Internet of Money” by Andreas M. Antonopoulos to german. In her podcast she discusses the philosophy and ideas behind bitcoin with its makers. Her guests are developers, cryptographers, company founders and researchers from all parts of the world. In 2017 she finished the “Digital Currencies” course at the University of Nicosia. Anita has a Multimedia Producer Diploma from the SAE Institute and studied Urban Planning at the Technical University of Vienna.

Bitcoinmight be our only tool to secure the human right to privacy and freedom of transaction. It’s a true medium of liberation for billions of people in rogue or underdeveloped states and a defense mechanism for privacy in our ever more digital lives.

Keyvan Davani

Host of the Total Bitcoin Podcast Show (Bitcoin & Austrian Economics)

Keyvan Davani (Ph.D. Law / Univ. of Vienna) is a researcher with a legal expertise in product liability and the author of non-fiction books and scientific articles, based on his specialized research on investigative expert-sources, once internal documents, insider-testimonials, and whistleblower-materials for more than 15 years. With his publications on the topic of “Why Bitcoin?, BitcoinReality vs. Central Banks, and the Monetary Evolution for Humanity” (medium.com/@keyvandavani), Keyvan intends to contribute to the creation of an ethical, sound, and decentralized monetary, financial, and economical root-layer with the hardest and scarcest money ever created in human history: Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is the next step in the evolution of human civilization.

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Polleit

Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Bayreuth and Chief Economist at Degussa

Thorsten Polleit is Chief Economist of Degussa, Europe’s largest precious metal trading firm, since April 2012. From 1998 to 2012, he worked as an economist in the international investment banking business. In 2012, he co-founded an Alternative Investment Fund. In September 2014 he was appointed Honorary Professor for economics at the University of Bayreuth. Thorsten Polleit is an Adjunct Scholar of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, US Alabama, and President of the Ludwig von Mises Institut Deutschland. His research interests are monetary economics, capital market theory and, in particular, the Austrian School of Economics. His latest books are “Mit Geld zur Weltherrschaft” (2020), “Vom Intelligenten Investieren” (2018) and “Ludwig von Mises – der kompromisslose Liberale” (2018).

For economic and ethical reasons I call for a free market in money. In addition to gold and silver,Bitcoin is clearly a promising candidate in the competition for sound money. In any case: May the best man win.

Dr. Arthur Stadler

Co-founder and partner of Stadler Völkel Attorneys at Law (Vienna)

Arthur is admitted as an attorney in Austria since 2012 and has extensive expertise in numerous fields of law, inter alia, gambling law, data protection law and IP law. From 2004 to 2006, he gained valuable experience working in cabinets of a judge and an Attorney General at the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxemburg. As Arthur has always been interested in technological advancement and the possibilities derived therefrom, he started to advise on Internet and IT law at a very early stage and focuses on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies since 2011, while steadily developing his know-how in this area. By now, Stadler Völkel Attorneys at Law is recognized as one of the few law firms in Austria with specialist knowledge in the field of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, which also led to the recent publication of the law manual “Blockchain rules”. Arthur himself is lecturer and author of multiple publications regarding cryptocurrencies, in particular with respect to consumer protection and data protection issues. Arthur advises on Austrian as well as EU law and represents clients before the relevant courts of law.

Bitcoinallows people to trust in the correctness of transactions, while trust is by no means a matter of self-evidence in society today. Bitcoin and the underlying concept of trustworthiness has huge potential to increase transparency even beyond its own area of application, if both technical and legal issues are adequately considered.

Ben Kaufman

Open Source Developer

Software developer focusing on Bitcoin, decentralized networks and free open-source software. Autodidact learner, studying Economics through the teachings of the Austrian school. Occasionally writing about Economics, Bitcoin and their connections.

Bitcoinis the necessary backbone needed for a sustainably prospering economy, viz. free-market money which resists political encroachments on the market economy. It is an apolitical digital and permissionless sound money system for facilitating economic transactions.

Rahim Taghizadegan

Rector at scholarium

Rahim Taghizadegan is not only the last Austrian economist of the Austrian School of Economics in the direct tradition but also a trained physicist and engineer specialization in nuclear physics and complex systems), a renowned philosopher and an entrepreneur. He was one of the first economists to understand and adopt Bitcoin, has taught at many universities (such as the University of Liechtenstein, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Zeppelin University, University of Halle), is a best-selling book author and a sought-after public speaker. He is the director of scholarium (scholarium.at, an independent educational institute) in Vienna, research fellow at the IAP university in Liechtenstein and an adjunct professor at the University of Applied Sciences Krems(Austria).

Bitcoinis the citizens’ tool for financial sovereignty.

Mark Justin Valek

Partner at Incrementum AG

Mark is partner of Incrementum AG and responsible for Portfolio Management and Research. His passion is to apply interdisciplinary thinking to investment. He is particularly fascinated with the Austrian School of Economics, monetary history, and the foreseeable paradigm shift in the monetary system. While working full time, Mark studied Business Administration at the Vienna University of Business Administration and has continuously worked in financial markets and asset management since 1999.

Bitcoin is gold 2.0

Dr. Beat Weber

Economist at Oesterreichische Nationalbank

In his recent book >Democratizing Money? Debating legitimacy in monetary reform proposals< (Cambridge 2018) and other publications and talks he has held a skeptical view of Bitcoin and other schemes’ ability to compete with official currencies

Bitcoin is money reimagined. It delivers on every attribute & function of money, to the highest possible degree, as information, openly accessible to all. There’s nothing happening in the world today that is more important.

Aurel Schubert

Honorary Professor at the Department of Economics at WU Vienna

Aurel Schubert is Honorary Professor and lecturer at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, as well as lecturer at the Vienna School of International Studies, and a central bank consultant. From 1985 until 2018, he has been a central banker, 25 years in the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (in various areas and functions) and 8 years in the European Central Bank, as Director General for Statistics. He has published the book, The Credit-Anstalt Crisis of 1931 (Cambridge University Press), as well as more than 50 articles on central banking, monetary history and central bank statistics. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina (USA), and a Master’s from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Bitcoin is cyber, but it is not a currency!

Sven Schnieders

Writer at Limitless Curiosity

Sven Schnieders is a writer and autodidact with a focus on Bitcoin, Economics, Physics, Math and Philosophy. His thinking about economics is strongly influenced by the writings of Hayek, Mises, and Hazlitt. He is also the organizer of the BitcoinVienna meetup.

14:00

Presentation

Bitcoin as decentralised digital money and its monstrous monetary hunger!

Bitcoin is the first form of money that is both: digital and decentralised. In his talk, Manuel will explain why this is kind of big deal and how the three general problems of digital money are solved in Bitcoin. Then, he will clarify why the peer to peer-network of full nodes is the real backbone of Bitcoin and its monetary policy. Of course, Manuel won’t give a talk without referring to the Stock to Flow approach, starting off with a short recap of his last talk about the empirical robustness of the model. He will then lay out which assets could possibly satisfy Bitcoin’s enormous monetary hunger implied by the S2F valuations.

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14:30



Presentation

Truths About Money – Past, Present, and Future

In his talk, Thorsten Polleit will address two timeless issues, which are particularly relevant for all those who wish to improve the current monetary system – be they crypto fans or precious metals advocates –: (1) Money has just one function; and (2) The size of the quantity of money doesn’t matter, that is no specific total supply of money is better than any other. The talk will conclude with making a case against government monopolisation of money production, arguing for a truly free market in money.

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15:00



Panel Discussion

Digital scarcity – will central banks be obsolete within this century?

16:00

Coffee and Drinks

16:30

Presentation

The values behind Bitcoin – an ethical assessment

Many people in traditional finance regard Bitcoin as something dodgy, maybe even a scam. The morality of investing in and using Bitcoin is doubted. Yet, for many adopters, Bitcoin is much more than a digital asset – it is considered a moral stance, an expression of values, not only a medium of value. It is time to critically assess the ethics of Bitcoin and analyze the values behind Bitcoin.

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17:00



Presentation

Austrian Economics is impossible without Bitcoin

Austrian economics, and its predecessors, the natural economists, scholastics, et al, have clearly drawn the short straw in the rise of modern-economics.

Until now, their theories have remained just that. Theories, which unfortunately will never have seen application in the real world without the advent of a truly fixed supply, free-market money like Bitcoin.

But thanks to the advent of Bitcoin and the belief, conviction & integrity of those who throughout the years have continued to support and discuss the Austrian school of thought, we now have the opportunity to live in a world where we are free to be who we want to be, are incentivised to be the best we can be, and are rewarded accordingly.

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17:30



Presentation

Bitcoin and The Business Cycle

The business cycle has been repeatedly characterized as a flaw inherent in the market economy, one which only the government could remedy. While still widely believed, the utter failure of governments and their central banks to counter these cycles suggests that a different approach might be required. In this talk, we will look at the business cycle theory as formulated by the Austrian School, how it explains the business cycle, and how Bitcoin could offer an opportunity for economic reform, preventing these cycles and putting the economy on the right track.

19:45

Presentation

Evidently the trajectory of global debt is highly unsustainable and will be encountered by increasing fiat money debasement this decade. As non-inflatable assets Gold and Bitcoin both provide great investment opportunities during such an environment, although each of them exhibits fundamentally different risk/return characteristics. Whereas bitcoin can be viewed as call option on a developing digital financial system, for the time being it will stay a highly volatile. In contrary to Bitcoin Gold also has non-monetary demand which structurally dampens its volatility and makes it a more stable store of value. A crucial question for investors may be: is it possible to combine both assets to a robust portfolio and even profit from volatility through a disciplined investment strategy?